Naval Disasters, World War Two and the British Stock Market

Hudson, Robert; Urquhart, Andrew

Abstract

This paper studies investor sentiment by examining the impact on the British stock market of naval disasters. Since the British Empire was a world power and its navy was held in great regard, Britain was dependent on control of the sea for survival during World War Two and the sinking of capital ships was a huge blow to the fight against the Axis powers. We find that the market was only significantly affected by a handful of naval disasters which have very clear strategic and political importance. The market was generally not affected by other individual disasters or successes, no matter how emotive those disasters were.

Citation

Hudson, R., & Urquhart, A. (2022). Naval Disasters, World War Two and the British Stock Market. Research in international business and finance, 59, Article 101556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2021.101556

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 19, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 24, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-01
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 25, 2023
• Journal: Research in International Business and Finance
• Print ISSN: 0275-5319
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 59
• Article Number: 101556
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2021.101556
• Keywords: Naval disasters; Stock returns; World war two; Sentiment
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3841343